


half of a sunburn

by goinghost



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Aubrey is Not, Canon Compliant, Dani is Cool As A Cucumber, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 20:36:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goinghost/pseuds/goinghost
Summary: “You ever seen a magic show?”--Aubrey blusters. Dani questions. The two get there eventually.





	half of a sunburn

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in the span of like one hour during a fight scene in critical role and let me tell you THAT was quite the tonal shift when the mighty nein had finished up the battle and my gals aubrey and dani had finally kissed. 
> 
> this is my first time writing amnesty fic and i was nervous about the concept but this basically flowed fully-formed from my proverbial pen so i'm slightly less nervous. hope it's as enjoyable to read as it was to write! 
> 
> takes place in some amorphous time between arcs, don't worry too much about timeline (i know i didn't)
> 
> title from 'daylight' by matt and kim

“You ever seen a magic show?”

The question was mumbled with her head down and chin underwater. They were sitting in the hot springs, Dani swirling her fingers in the water lazily. It was a cold day in Kepler, West Virginia, and the local monsters were taking advantage of nature’s hot tub right in their backyard to soak up the planet’s nutrients and fucking  _ chill _ . 

Aubrey didn’t physically need hot spring time, but she enjoyed being out here with everyone (especially Dani). She’d been a bit of a lone wolf since starting her journey as a traveling magician, but being at Amnesty Lodge had made her think that maybe this sense of community was exactly what she was missing. 

Her own years-long loneliness aside, she’d been thinking a lot about her act lately as she continued her lessons with Janelle learning real magic, and she’d realized that she’d never actually done a show for Amnesty Lodge. Hence her question.

Dani blinked at her with her strange orange eyes and gave a small laugh, “No, I can’t say that I have. Knowing real magic exists kind of ruins it, don’t you think?”

Aubrey gasped, as mock offended as she could manage (which was quite a bit) and slammed a palm into the water, “No! How could you think that?” 

“I just mean, you know it’s fake, there doesn’t seem to be a point.” Dani’s smile was wide and she was laughing a little more. 

Very quickly Aubrey came to the conclusion that Dani was fucking with her and then came to the conclusion that she would continue to bluster on about this for the joke just to keep Dani laughing. And then she was blushing, but the redness of her face could be blamed on the hot springs if Dani decided to call her out. 

“It’s an art form!” She cried, gesticulating wildly.

Dani shrugged, “Doesn’t seem to be very artistic, shuffling cards in a fancy way.” 

“That’s it,” Aubrey shook her head and stood up, immediately shivering in the cold, “You’re coming with me.” 

“Oh am I?” Dani laughed. 

“Yes. I’m going to show you why you can’t just disrespect my livelihood!”

“Monster hunting?” Dani held a hand up. 

Aubrey pulled her out of the steaming water, “No, you—I know you know that I mean magic!”

“Right,” Dani winked, “Magic.”

 

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Dani was sitting on the bed in Aubrey’s room while she prepared her act. She’d slipped on her gloves and a long-sleeved shirt to make her sleight-of-hand easier. Once she’d put the finishing touches on her supplies, she cleared her throat.  _ Go time.  _

“Three thousand years ago, on the banks of the Nile—” Dani raised a hand, “—yes?”

“The Nile?”

“Yeah, like—you know, like the river in Egypt?”

“And that’s a place?”

Aubrey slapped a hand to her forehead, “Right. Alien vampire.” She flexed her fingers in her magician-standard white gloves. “Kinda shoots my whole introduction speech in the foot, but whatever. I’m a professional, I can improvise.” She flashed a smile. 

Dani smiled back, “Introduction speech, huh?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve got a whole act planned. I promised you a magic show and you’re getting a fucking magic show!” 

“Just hanging with you like this is magical enough for me,” Dani said with a smile. 

Aubrey’s face was on fire. She was blushing so hard, she smelled smoke. Oh shit, it wasn’t metaphorical smoke, her hands were flaming over her fire-resistant gloves. “Fuck!” She shouted, quickly flapping her arms trying to calm down enough to put out the flames. “I would like my hands to stop burning, please,” she tried, but her concentration was shot, Dani’s words playing in her mind on repeat. 

“Shit, Aubrey, I—”

“No, no you’re fine, I just—gimme a second.” She closed her eyes and held her hands as still as she could and took a deep breath.  _ In and out, Aubrey,  _ Janelle’s voice played in her mind,  _ Calm your emotions and your magic will follow, so it seems. Just keep breathing in and out.  _

“I would like my hands to stop burning,” she said again, this time her voice was steadier, body relaxed. Sylvain the planet, or Sylvain’s spirit, or  _ something _ answered her plea this time, and the flames receded from her hands. 

Phew, now all that was left was for her to feel mortifying shame at her actions.

Dani let out a little breath of relief when the fire was gone. She looked at Aubrey meaningfully, as if Aubrey was supposed to know what the glint in her eyes meant. As if Aubrey ever knew what Dani meant when she looked at her meaningfully. If she did then maybe she’d know by now what she and Dani even  _ were _ . Aubrey liked her, yeah, and sometimes it really seemed like Dani reciprocated, and they did date-like things together that might even qualify as date-date things, but were they dating? Aubrey’d never thought to call Dani her girlfriend and Dani hadn’t either, but sometimes it felt like Dani’s eyes said that they were more than friends. Or maybe she was just reading too much into it.

“All good?” Dani asked. 

“Y-yeah. Super good. Everything’s great, only ruined my act a little bit by using real magic.” Aubrey shook out her shoulders. “Um, anyway, what I wanted to say before was that I like it when—when, you know, you say things like that. A lot.” Her hands started heating up a little bit again, but she kept her breathing steady. Not pulling the same embarrassing shit twice, nope, Aubrey Little only embarrassed herself in new original ways each time thank you very much. 

“Oh,” Dani said, a smile creeping up on her face, “I’m glad. I like saying them. You’re...captivating, Aubrey Little.”

Aubrey’s brain short-circuited at that because  _ holy shit what am I supposed to say to that she just called me captivating no one’s ever said anything that nice to me before oh my god what do I do now what do I—  _

“Can I kiss you?”

_ OH MY GOD “ _ Uh—wh—guh—”

“It’s just you look really cute right now and I haven’t done it before and I wanted to know if it was okay, so,” Dani looked at her meaningfully, “Can I kiss you, Aubrey Little?”

She couldn’t even bring herself to nod, she just smashed her face against Dani’s in excitement, their noses bumping awkwardly until Aubrey adjusted her position and Dani tilted her chin and Aubrey’s hands came to cup Dani’s face and Dani’s arms came to rest around Aubrey’s waist and they were  _ kissing holy shit I’m kissing Dani, Dani is kissing me, we are kissing right now. _

And then Dani’s lips parted and Aubrey’s dumb ADHD brain shut up for the first time ever. 

They kept kissing for a few more seconds before Aubrey realized that she was still human and needed to breathe despite how superhumanly good she felt right then. She pulled away with a gasp, and felt her hand come to clutch her forehead. “Holy shit.” She breathed. 

“Wow,” Dani said, smiling like Aubrey should’ve noticed she smiled all this time. 

“We just—Holy  _ shit _ .” 

Dani grabbed Aubrey’s other hand and squeezed it, “Wish I’d done that earlier, I feel like we’ve been missing out.”

“Oh yeah,” Aubrey said, trying to sound put-together enough to dish out a Cool Line™, “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

Dani’s eyes twinkled, “Well, we’d better start, it might take a while.” She looked at Aubrey’s patented magic set up, “Unless you’d like to finish the show?”

“The magic will be here when we’re done, I think,” Aubrey managed to say, only sounding a little bit like a pubescent teenager.

“Frankly, Aubrey, I don’t know if we’re going to be done for quite some time.”

Aubrey huffed, “Stop trying lines on me—not that they aren’t appreciated—and kiss me.”

Dani didn’t even bother replying; she just complied, shifting a little to practically push Aubrey against the wall. 

Hours later, Aubrey finally ended up completing her magic show with a little more spring in her step and a lot more exuberance. She’d just experienced a magic show all on its own after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! maybe leave a comment telling me what you think! 
> 
> you can find me on tumblr @ ghostzvne or on twitter @GHOSTZVNE


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